Overview
James Wilson was a Scottish immigrant who arrived in America in 1765 and settled in Pennsylvania. After building a successful legal practice, he became involved in the Patriot Cause and rose to prominence through the publication of his pamphlet Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament. Wilson was a cautious, conservative Patriot who supported the idea of independence, but did not seek to rush to declare it. He openly worked to delay the vote on independence; however, he ultimately voted in favor of it and signed the Declaration of Independence. Despite this, Wilson was often criticized for his ties to wealthy elites, land speculation schemes, and legal support for Loyalists. The latter led to an attack on his home in 1779, which is known as the “Fort Wilson Crisis.” During the Constitutional Convention (1787), he served on the Committee of Detail and wrote the final draft of the Constitution that was passed on to a final committee. For this, Wilson is often referred to as the “Architect of the Constitution.” Afterward, he worked to secure the Constitution’s ratification and later served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Personal Facts
- Born: September 14, 1742, in Carskerdo, near St. Andrews, Scotland.
- Parents: William Wilson (father), Aleson Wilson (mother).
- Spouses: Rachel Bird (1771), Hannah Gray (1793).
- Died: August 21, 1798, in Edenton, North Carolina. He was 55.
- Buried: Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Nickname: Architect of the Constitution.
- Part of: Signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Significance
James Wilson is important to American History for his role in the Patriot Cause in Pennsylvania and his involvement in the American Revolution. As a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Wilson is one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. He also played a key role during the Constitutional Convention (1787), earning him the nickname, “Architect of the Constitution.”
Biography
Early Life
James Wilson was born on September 14, 1742, in Carskerdo, near St. Andrews, Scotland, to William and Aleson Wilson, who were farmers. His parents planned for him to enter the Presbyterian ministry and gave him a strong education.
Wilson started his studies at the University of St. Andrews in November 1757 and stayed until 1759. He later attended the University of Glasgow and, in 1763, the University of Edinburgh. He left the University of Edinburgh in June 1765, likely without earning a degree. That same month, he started studying accounting but left the field almost at once.
Immigration to America
Wilson sailed to America and reached New York during the Stamp Act Crisis (1765–1766). He brought a stronger education than most immigrants of the time and carried letters of introduction to important leaders in Pennsylvania, including Richard Peters, the provincial secretary and a trustee of the College of Philadelphia.
In February 1766, Wilson gained a position as a Latin tutor at the College of Philadelphia. On May 19, the school granted his request for an honorary Master of Arts degree.
Legal Career and Professional Interests
Wilson maintained his scholarly interests, but he realized that opportunities in America lay in a legal career rather than in teaching. He entered the law office of John Dickinson and studied the writings of Edward Coke and the lectures of William Blackstone. After about two years in Dickinson’s office, he was admitted to the bar in November 1767, although he did not immediately begin to practice.
During his student years, he and his close friend William White published a series of essays in the Pennsylvania Chronicle titled “The Visitant.”
In the summer of 1768, Wilson started his legal practice in Reading, which placed him near Rachel Bird of Birdsboro, whom he had met in Philadelphia. His practice among the conservative German farmers was, in his words, “very far from being contemptible,” but new opportunities farther west, along with challenges in his courtship of Rachel Bird, led him to move to Carlisle, a Scots-Irish community. He married Bird on November 5, 1771, and bought a home, livestock, and a slave.
Wilson’s practice grew at an extraordinary rate. By 1774, he handled nearly half the cases in the county court and practiced in seven nearby counties. Much of his legal work involved land disputes.
By 1773, Wilson borrowed money to purchase land and developed a strong interest in land speculation that stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Although he was active in law across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, he still found time over six years to lecture on English literature at the College of Philadelphia.
Patriot Cause
On July 12, 1774, Wilson was appointed the head of a Committee of Correspondence in Carlisle and was elected to the First Provincial Conference in Philadelphia. His influence there was strong enough to earn him a nomination, though not an election, as a delegate to the First Continental Congress.
Right away, Wilson revised a manuscript he wrote in 1768 titled Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament and published it in time for members of the First Continental Congress to read.
Wilson drew a clear line between the areas in which Americans should, and should not, accept the power of Parliament. He ended with the bold claim that Parliament held no authority over the American Colonies at all and that “all power is derived from the people.”
- Wilson supported America becoming an independent state within the British Empire.
- Many readers circulated the pamphlet widely.
- The pamphlet identified Wilson as a leading thinker in the Patriot Cause.
Few had taken such an advanced stand as early as 1774. A close reading of his original manuscript shows that he reached this conclusion four years before he published the essay, and he supported it with strong and detailed arguments.
At first, some credited the pamphlet to Benjamin Franklin, and it drew attention as a strong defense of the American position and Patriot Cause. It was widely read in both America and England.
Its importance for Americans later became tied to the Declaration of Independence. Yet its most forward-looking idea came in Wilson’s statement that “all the different members of the British empire are distinct states, independent of each other, but connected together under the same sovereign.” This idea helped shape what would become the modern Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In 1774, Wilson stood on the far Patriot left, and from that point forward, he moved steadily toward more conservative views.
In January 1775, Wilson delivered a speech before the Provincial Conference in which he repeated his argument that Parliament could pass acts that were unconstitutional. He introduced a resolution declaring the Boston Port Act unconstitutional, but it failed.
On May 3, 1775, he was elected colonel of the 4th Battalion of Cumberland County Associators, although he never saw active service.
Second Continental Congress
Three days later, on May 6, 1775, Wilson was elected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.
While in Congress, Wilson served on several committees, including one tasked with securing support from western Native American Indian nations. In August and September, he participated in meetings with them near Pittsburgh; however, no agreement was reached.
Early in 1776, Wilson wrote an address to Americans that he said was meant “to lead the public mind into the idea of independence.” Thomas Paine’s Common Sense made the planned address unnecessary, and Wilson never published it.
Wilson remained sensitive to the views of his constituents, who did not support independence. While he supported independence himself, he had concerns that the people and government were not ready for it. Along with John Dickinson, Edward Rutledge, and Philip Livingston, he opposed the Adams-Lee Junto and helped delay the vote on independence for three weeks in early June.
- Wilson asked, “Before we are prepared to build the new house…‘why should we pull down the old one, and expose ourselves to the inclemencies of the season?”
- Wilson opposed independence again in the June 8 debate.
- Many criticized him for this, but 22 of his colleagues later issued a written defense of his position.
On July 2, Wilson was one of three Pennsylvania delegates to vote for independence. The others were Benjamin Franklin and John Morton. The delegates who refused to sign, including Dickinson, were replaced with delegates who agreed to vote in favor of independence. Wilson signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2.
During 1776 and 1777, Wilson worked mainly with the Board of War and served as chairman of the standing Committee on Appeals, where he handled a heavy caseload. He was among the earliest to argue that the States should give up their Western Land Claims, that Congress should have the power to raise revenue through taxes, and that the national government should be stronger. He also promoted representation based on free population and supported voting in Congress by individuals rather than by States.
Opposition to the Pennsylvania Constitution
Although Wilson supported the idea of individual rights and the sovereignty of the people, he strongly opposed Pennsylvania’s 1776 Constitution, which he believed was flawed due to the pressure of frontier settlers and new immigrants.
- Wilson believed that government depended on the consent of the governed.
- He tried to limit what he saw as the uncontrolled will of the majority.
- Wilson was a conservative Patriot.
- He disliked the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution for abolishing the Governor’s office and concentrating all power in a single legislature.
- Wilson’s opposition to the 1776 Constitution made him unpopular in Philadelphia.
His resistance was so intense that his close friend Arthur St. Clair thought he was “perhaps too warm.” This conflict with George Bryan and his political allies made Wilson’s position in Congress increasingly uncertain.
Early in 1777, sensing that he might soon be removed from Congress, Wilson drafted a plan for a congressional legal office modeled on the British solicitor general or the French avocat general. He sent the plan to Robert Morris and urged Morris to help secure its approval, hoping to hold the new office himself. Although Morris supported the idea, Congress did not adopt it. On February 4, Wilson was removed from Congress, but because no suitable replacement appeared, he was reinstated on February 22.
His continued attacks on Pennsylvania’s Constitution, which he called “the most detestable that ever was formed,” made his final removal from Congress on September 14, 1777, unavoidable. The political tensions in Pennsylvania were so strong that Wilson spent the winter of 1777–1778 in Annapolis. This stay later caused him difficulty when he held public office in Pennsylvania.
Fort Wilson Riot
Wilson’s move to Philadelphia in 1778 showed how his views were changing. Once a frontier lawyer focused on land disputes, he now worked as a corporate lawyer. Once an extreme Patriot, he became a leader of the Republican Society, a conservative group opposed to George Bryan.
Once a Presbyterian, Wilson joined the Episcopal Church and formed close ties with wealthy elites such as Robert Morris, William Duer, and William Bingham. His legal work defending Loyalists and his involvement in privateering, land schemes, and business ventures widened the distance between himself and the public.
In 1779, Philadelphia faced food shortages and high prices, and riots broke out against profiteers, Loyalists, and their supporters. On October 4, a handbill urged the militia to “drive off from the city all disaffected persons and those who supported them.”
After arresting several people, the militia searched for Wilson, saying he “had always plead for such.” Wilson gathered friends, barricaded his home, and defended it against the militia’s attack. Several people were killed or wounded before the First City Troop and President Joseph Reed (Governor of Pennsylvania) arrived and rescued him.
Wilson hid for several days, then appeared on October 19 to post a £10,000 bond. On March 13, 1780, the legislature passed an act of oblivion, forgiving all who took part in the event later known as the “Fort Wilson Riot.”
Return to Congress
When conservatives regained control in Pennsylvania in 1782, Wilson was sent to represent Pennsylvania in the Confederation Congress, where he also served from 1785 to 1787.
During this period, he opposed making a separate peace with England, proposed the creation of new States in the Western Lands on April 9, 1783, and strongly supported the general revenue plan adopted on April 19, 1783. Critics claimed he backed the plan because of his ties to the Bank of North America and that his support for creating new Western States grew from his interest in land speculation.
Expanding Business Interests
Between 1777 and 1787, Wilson devoted most of his energy to his growing business ventures, often at the expense of his legal career.
In June 1779, the French Government appointed him Avocat General for maritime and commercial cases, a role he held until 1783.
In 1780, he advised Robert Morris on the formation of the Bank of Pennsylvania and helped design the plan for this private agency to purchase supplies for the army.
Pennsylvania Land Claims
In November and December 1782, Wilson defended Pennsylvania’s claims against Connecticut before congressional commissioners in Trenton, New Jersey. Joseph Reed wrote that Wilson’s argument was “both laborious and judicious,” noting that he worked hard because Pennsylvania’s success mattered to him for both public and private reasons. Wilson had invested heavily in land within the disputed Connecticut area.
Defense of a National Bank
In 1785, he published Considerations on the Power to Incorporate the Bank of North America, an economic and constitutional argument in which he anticipated Chief Justice John Marshall’s doctrine of “judicial review.”
Somerset Mills
Also in 1782, Wilson and Mark Bird purchased the Somerset Mills on the Delaware, which included a rolling and slitting mill, a gristmill, a furnace, and a sawmill.
In January 1785, Wilson tried to borrow 500,000 florins from Dutch investors to expand Somerset Mills. Two months later, through Dutch minister Van Berkel, he tried to become the agent for a massive land venture worth about 2,000,000 florins, saying he would set aside his law career for the job. The plan never moved forward.
Wilson also held interests in several western land companies and served as president of the Illinois and Wabash Company.
Architect of the Constitution
Wilson’s most important public achievement was his work in creating the United States Constitution. With the possible exception of James Madison, Wilson had the strongest command of political economy and the most accurate sense of the nation’s future potential.
Wilson always held that sovereignty rested in the people. He supported choosing the President and both houses of Congress by popular vote. He argued that the national government was not “an assemblage of states, but of individuals for certain political purposes.”
- Wilson supported a strong central government that could encourage the development of a national economy.
- He was an advocate for a strong Executive Branch.
- Wilson supported the election of Senators by the people, not the state legislatures. His vision was realized with the ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913.
- He supported the concept of the Supreme Court being responsible for “declaring and enforcing the superior power of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.”
- Wilson called for a “Council of Revision” that had veto power over bills passed by Congress.
- He also supported giving Congress the authority to veto State Laws.
Wilson served on the Committee of Detail, which drafted the final version of the Constitution. Although he admitted that “some parts of it, which if my wish had prevailed, would certainly have been altered,” he signed the final document and worked hard for its approval.
- The Committee’s draft, written by Wilson, was sent to a final drafting committee.
- This final committee included Gouverneur Morris, who wrote the final version of the Constitution, but it closely followed Wilson’s version.
Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention
Wilson played a leading role in the Pennsylvania Convention that met to ratify the Constitution. His speech to the delegates was widely read in other states, but it also renewed public hostility against him. In Carlisle, critics burned him in effigy as “James de Caledonia.”
- Wilson delivered his speech on October 6, 1787.
- It is known as the “Speech in the State-House Yard.”
- In it, he publicly responded to criticisms of the proposed Constitution.
- The speech was printed in more than 30 newspapers in 12 states and served as the primary defense of the Constitution until the Federalist Papers were published.
1790 Pennsylvania Constitution
The writing of Pennsylvania’s 1790 Constitution, part of a conservative reaction after the American Revolution, was largely Wilson’s work. Closely modeled on the Federal Constitution, it marked the peak of his long struggle against Pennsylvania’s more democratic 1776 Constitution.
Supreme Court Justice
Wilson gave three years to this constitutional work and set aside his business interests during this time. He expected a high position in the new Federal Government and was widely mentioned as a candidate for Chief Justice. He even recommended himself to President George Washington for the role. On September 29, 1789, Washington appointed him an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Washington nominated John Jay as the first Chief Justice over Wilson.
Wilson’s Early Work as a Legal Lecturer
On August 17, 1789, the trustees of the College of Philadelphia, including Wilson, approved Charles Smith’s request to offer a law course by appointing Wilson to teach it. He started his lectures on December 15 before an audience that included the President and leading officials from the federal and state governments.
Wilson understood that he had a chance to help shape the American legal system, so he broke from William Blackstone’s idea that law rested on the power of a sovereign superior and that revolution was illegal.
Instead, Wilson argued that sovereignty lived in each person and that law rested on “the consent of those whose obedience the law requires.” Using this idea, Wilson built a strong defense of the American Revolution and disputed Blackstone’s claim that people lacked a legal right to rebel.
In this lecture titled “Of Man as a Member of the Great Commonwealth of Nations,” Wilson explained how the Supreme Court of the United States could settle international disputes and apply international law. Wilson hoped to become the “American Blackstone.” However, except for the first lecture, his work was not published until after his death and never gained the influence he expected.
Final Attempt to Shape Constitutional Principles
Wilson made one last attempt to define clear rules for interpreting the United States Constitution. He was commissioned to prepare a digest of Pennsylvania’s laws, a task he began with his usual energy.
Hoping to expand the project, Wilson wrote to President Washington and urged that “principles congenial to those of the Constitution…be established and ascertained, in complete and correct theory, before they are called into practical operation.” He envisioned creating permanent solutions to the major issues of Federal and State authority.
Washington sent the proposal to the Attorney General, who objected that it was improper for “a single person,” especially a judge, to declare binding principles for the future. When Pennsylvania withdrew its support for the digest, Wilson continued the work on his own, but he died before he could finish it.
Expanding Speculation and the Collapse of His Ventures
Wilson turned away from public affairs and returned to large-scale land speculation. In 1792 and 1793, he drew the Holland Land Company into risky purchases of several hundred thousand acres in Pennsylvania and New York.
Early in 1795, he bought a major share in the Georgia Company, which became embroiled in the Yazoo Land Scandal (1794–1814). Beyond these ventures, the closest he came to harming his judicial reputation was his attempt to shape Pennsylvania land laws in ways that helped speculators and his failure to follow the terms of a state statute.
At the very moment his financial bubble began to collapse, Wilson planned an enormous immigration and settlement project. It called for major European investments, agents to recruit settlers overseas, chartered ships, landing stations, and routes to move settlers to western lands. But he was already overwhelmed by his widespread business schemes.
Wilson’s Judicial Record
Wilson issued only a small number of judicial opinions. He was among the first judges to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional, and he was the only justice to refuse service as a pension commissioner. His most important ruling came in Chisholm v. Georgia, where he answered yes to the major question of whether the people of the United States formed a single nation.
Wilson’s lasting influence did not come from the few cases he decided on the Supreme Court. Instead, it grew out of his 1784 bank opinion, his law lectures, and his work at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. In those writings, he set out strong arguments for national power that Chief Justice John Marshall later put into practice.
Final Years and Decline
Wilson, left with six children after his first wife died in 1786, married 19-year-old Hannah Gray of Boston on September 19, 1793. Their time together was brief. Their infant son died, and in the summer of 1797, Wilson moved to Burlington, New Jersey, to avoid arrest for debt. He stayed on the Supreme Court despite public criticism and rumors of impeachment.
Early in 1798, suffering from severe mental distress, Wilson went to Edenton, North Carolina, and stayed in the home of Judge James Iredell. “I have been hunted…like a wild beast,” he wrote, as his once-strong mind faltered and he experienced only brief periods of clarity. He died in Edenton of a “violent nervous fever.” Claims that he took his own life were disproved by stronger evidence. In 1906, his remains were moved to Christ Church in Philadelphia.
Accomplishments and Milestones
- 1742, September 14 — James Wilson was born near St. Andrews, Scotland.
- 1757–1759 — Wilson studied at the University of St. Andrews.
- 1765 — He immigrated to New York and then to Philadelphia, where he studied the law under John Dickinson.
- 1766 — Wilson taught Latin at the College of Philadelphia and received an honorary Master of Arts degree on May 19.
- 1767, November — He was admitted to the bar.
- 1768 — Wilson opened his legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania.
- 1771, November 5 — He married Rachel Bird.
- 1774, July 12 — Wilson was appointed head of the Carlisle Committee of Correspondence.
- 1774 — He published Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament.
- 1775, May 3 — Wilson was elected colonel of the 4th Battalion of Cumberland County Associators.
- 1775, May 6 — He was elected to the Second Continental Congress.
- 1776, July 2 — Wilson voted for independence.
- 1776, August 2 — He signed the Declaration of Independence.
- 1777–1778, Winter — Wilson stayed in Annapolis, Maryland, after political hostility drove him from Philadelphia.
- 1779, October 4 — His home was attacked in the Fort Wilson Riot.
- 1780 — Wilson became legal adviser to Robert Morris during the formation of the Bank of America.
- 1783, April 9 — Wilson proposed creating states in the Western Lands.
- 1785 — He led western land ventures and served as president of the Illinois and Wabash Company.
- 1785 — Wilson published Considerations on the Power to Incorporate the Bank of North America.
- 1787 — He participated in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and served on the Committee of Detail.
- 1787, October 6 — Wilson delivered his “Speech in the State-House Yard.”
- 1789 — He sought appointment as Chief Justice and received selection as an associate justice on the first Supreme Court.
- 1789, August 17 — Wilson accepted an appointment to the chair of law at the College of Philadelphia and began major lectures on law and sovereignty.
- 1790 — He largely wrote Pennsylvania’s new Constitution.
- 1792 — Wilson involved the Holland Land Company in risky purchases in Pennsylvania and New York.
- 1795 — He bought a large interest in a company tied to the Yazoo Land Scandal.
- 1797, Summer — Wilson moved to Burlington, New Jersey, to avoid arrest for debt.
- 1798 — He moved to Edenton, North Carolina.
- 1798, August 21 — Wilson died.
AP US History
Definition
James Wilson (1742–1798) — Wilson was a Founding Father, legal thinker, and early Supreme Court justice whose final years were marked by debt, declining health, and personal hardship. After remarrying in 1793, he faced financial ruin due to failed land speculation and moved to Burlington, New Jersey, to avoid arrest. His mental and physical condition collapsed in 1798, leading to his death in Edenton, North Carolina.
Alignment
James Wilson is part of the following units, topics, and chapters in the AP US History curriculum:
